With the recent fire outbreak in the Santa Cruz mountains near Loma Prieta, this topic strikes really close to home, literally and figuratively. Do you wonder…
Are you prepared for an emergency?
Whether that emergency be a fire, a flood, an earthquake, or other type of disaster, you should think about building a go bag that includes minimally the following:
- Food and water supplies to last you 3 days/person (minimum)
- Clothing
- First aid kit (and any necessary medications afflicting members of your party)
- battery powered radio
- cellphone
- flashlight (and/or matches)
- batteries
- copies of important family documents (medical records, insurance policies, etc.) stored in a waterproof container
- If you have pets, build a go bag for them, too (water, food bowl, food, meds, etc.) – cannot stress the importance of maintaining shot records for your pets in the event they must be boarded during a crisis. *Chip them if you haven’t already so they can be reunited with their owner after the disaster*
- Contacts outside the immediate affected area to notify of your situation
It always takes a disaster to remind us, we cannot and should not procrastinate when it comes to disaster preparedness! We need to prepare for these eventualities!
As some of you are aware, the Calpine settlement regarding air quality monitoring resulted in $1M grant for the Avenida Espana, Chantilley, Los Paseos, Metcalf, and Santa Teresa neighborhoods (i.e. the neighborhoods bounded by Highway 101, Bernal Rd, Santa Teresa Hills, and Bailey Ave). These funds are available via the Participatory Budget process where you the citizen vote to determine how those funds are spent to improve the neighborhood. However, as the namesake implies, you have to participate! That can be anything from suggesting ideas on how to spend the funds, to championing the concept as a budget delegate to develop the concept into a proposal to present to the city and neighbors to vote upon. Lastly, participation can be as simple as learning about all available projects and make an informed decision to best determine the expenditure of these funds to maximize the impact in your community.
